Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Any other family travellers frustrated with hotel suites?

As much as I love having elite status with hotel programs it seems that we run into an issue a lot of times on our stays. Typically we travel as a family of four and unfortunately when you go to many hotels the upgrades that you are offered aren't conducive to more than two people. As many of you can attest when you get upgraded to a suite it will only have one king bed and maybe a pullout sofa. My kids are getting older and aren't pint sized anymore so pullout sofas don't cut it. Even if you don't have status a lot of times hotels have some pretty decent deals on their suites but do you want to pay a bit more to get that darn pullout instead of an actual bed?

Two recent stays are good examples of this. The family stayed at the Sheraton Cavalier in Saskatoon and we were offered a suite however it was a king with a pullout. We'd rather have two actual beds so we stuck with our original booking of two queens but we were placed on the Club Floor. The second example is one where I was travelling by myself and was upgraded to a Junior Suite at the Sheraton Centre Toronto. The room was beautiful and great for myself (in fact I didn't need that much space for the 16 or so hours I had the room) however had I been with the family we would have ran into the same predicament. A king bed with a pull out sofa. Not ideal.

Junior Suite at the Sheraton Centre Toronto

Of course there are places where the suites do have two Kings or two Queens or some other set up with actual comfortable beds but it seems percentage wise in terms of all the hotels around the world that very few do it.

Where we have been able to get suites conducive to families?

The Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim is an obvious one, no problem getting a suite with multiple beds. In fact we had a larger two bedroom suite with four queen beds and a pullout. My guess is that many hotels around the Disneyland area and Disney World in Florida have suites that appeal to families.

We love the Fairmont Banff Springs and their suites don't accommodate families very well unless you have them convert their single king bed Spa/Terrace suite into a larger suite by booking it along with the queen standard room next to it. Luckily both rooms have a single 'outer' door that you can close and use as your main entrance. Still this isn't technically getting just the suite as you are booking two rooms. If you don't mind staying in the Stanley Thompson wing (the non castle part of the Hotel) they do have some family suites there but it just isn't the same as staying in the castle part.

Fairmont Banff Springs Spa/Terrace Suite

The Hyatt Calgary does have Regency Club suites with two queens which are two rooms that have been made into a suite. Room one remains a standard 2 queens while the connecting room gets a bar, table with chairs and couch to make it the suite.

The Loews Hollywood Hotel gave us a 2 King suite but I wouldn't qualify it as a true suite. Just a larger room which could accommodate 2 kings as all their standard rooms only have 2 double beds. It was a great room but one I wouldn't qualify as a true suite.

Other than that most other places don't seem to make their suites family friendly. We have stayed at our fair share of hotels with pullouts, in fact we have one coming up this weekend but ultimately I would love to see more hotels make their suites more family friendly.

What are your thoughts? Have we been picking the wrong hotels? Are we travelling to places that are more business related than pleasure? Or do you also find that many suites are just ideal for single or dual travellers? Tell us your stories by commenting below!

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